Christmas Cards

After finding a great deal online for Christmas cards I decided there was no reason good enough to stop me from sending them out this year. Jonathan suggested that we send Christmas emails...but something about that is just so impersonal to me. There's a nice feeling you get when someone takes the time to send something via post. My goal is to do these every year, but hopefully in the future I will do it far enough in advance that I will be able to send a family letter as well.

The printed card

Ayden Update

Sleepy Boy

Ayden loves to nap...as long as he's around people. Put him in his crib and he always wakes up sooner. Oh well :)

Here he is on our bed

Winter Fun

We found this fun hat at Target and I HAD to have it for Ayden. We took him out to lunch the other day and decided to put him in it even though its still just a tiny bit too big for him. He was being so cute and silly!

Ayden's Teddy Bear Outfit

Thanks to a loving Grandma Decker we have the most adorable little teddy bear pants and jacket set for Ayden. He looks so cute in it! She even bought him a coordinating onesie with little bears and trees on it. :)

Ayden thinks he is such a hot shot - he started sitting up this last week! We had been able to prop him up in a chair corner or on a pillow before but now we have to put things in front of him too because he's strong enough to pull himself forward now. I can't believe he's getting so big!

This is him watching some tv - one of his favorite things already.

He absolutely loves to play and is full of smiles! He has given us some small giggles before, but Sunday while Jonathan was changing him he actually started laughing for the first time! His daddy must just be a bucket of laughs...or he was mocking us for having to change his diaper.

Our Little Reindeer

A few weeks ago we were shopping at Babies R' Us and we saw this totally adorable reindeer sleeper - and I thought it would be perfect for Christmas pictures since its not just a boring Santa getup. My dad was gracious enough to lend me his Canon camera to take these yesterday and I am soooo thankful! I'm sure they turned out way better than they would have been on my camera. I took a lot of them...probably over a hundred by the time I was finished. Of course I didn't keep them all but its always nice to have a lot of variety, and with the use of memory cards it doesn't hurt to just take as many as you want and delete later on. I think I'm getting the photographer itch.....too bad I don't have $500 to drop on a nice camera.

My sleepy little reindeer fell asleep during the photo shoot...what draining work it is to be a model. :)

I love his little Charlie Brown wrinkles on his forehead.

He is too cute for words sometimes!

His pouty face...and he's still adorable. I know, I know, I'm a big sappy mommy. I guess it happens to us all sooner or later.

Getting up close and personal.

The rare smile...its hard to catch them on camera sometimes. When you do a shoot this long the baby tends to get a little cranky so I broke mine up into two blocks of time (he still got cranky though). What can I say, I just couldn't stop taking pictures!

Ayden's Nursery

So I finally have some pictures of Ayden's nursery...although I'm sad to say that its still not complete. We still have some shelves and paintings to hang, but these will give you a general idea.

The little cubes are nice for dividing clothes into sizes or hiding things that don't look nice on the open shelves. We've already got a ton of stuffed animals for him, but who knows if he'll actually play with any of them! I love TY Pluffies because they're machine washable so he will be able to drag them around or suck on them all he wants.


This is his dresser/changing table. This used to be a light colored pine dresser with a lacquered finish and brassy colored hardware (ick!) but over conference weekend in April of this year we sanded it down, repainted it, and gave it some snazzy new silver drawer pulls. Now it looks like new! Its worked great as Ayden's changing table and it cost next to nothing. How could it get any better?

Right now we have Ayden using a temporary bassinet for his crib. Its actually a pack'n'play, but it has a bassinet attachment which we are using until my dad finishes his real crib. Its actually worked out nicely because it was easy to have in our room when he was little, it has a vibrator and plays music, and it has a removable changing table attachment too. That way when we did have him sleeping in our bedroom we didn't have to carry him to his nursery to change him, which was especially nice in the middle of the night.

This is the chair that I have absolutely fallen in love with. The second I sat in it at Babies R' Us I knew it was the one! I appreciate that it has a shorter back because its better for a little person like me, and is still surprisingly supportive for Jonathan too even though he's way taller than me!

This is where a lot of Ayden's feedings, story times, and snuggles times happen. All I need is the ottoman and I could pretty much sleep in this chair because its just so darn comfy!

Cute cute and more cute

So I realized that there were a bunch of pictures I hadn't put on here from when Ayden was around 10 weeks and up until now, so I decided to do it now. I can't believe he will be three months old on Sunday!

I miss the days when sleeping was his primary activity....although he is almost to the playing stage now and that will be even better!

I just can't resist snapping a picture of that angelic little face.

He is a happy little baby, especially when waking up from a nap. This afternoon he was being particularly smiley so I had to take advantage of it.

One of his favorite places is his changing table...you'd think he wouldn't like it because of the cold wipes and all that jazz...but I guess he just likes feeling clean! Even from the time he was only a few days old he would let us know right away when he needed to be changed.

After his baths Ayden usually gets a little cranky because he's cold - but not this day. He was sooooooo cute in his little ducky towel!

I love to snuggle Ayden and rock him in our big cushy rocking chair. I would highly recommend this chair to anyone - its so comfy and its the right size for anyone! That's something Jonathan and I always have to take into consideration seeing as he's a full foot taller than me. :)

Ayden loves being read to - especially from Dr. Seuss books because of their vivid pictures and fun rhymes. He gets all excited when I read to him so I've been trying to do it everyday.

This is a video of me reading to Ayden from a Dr. Seuss book called Happy Birthday To You.

Our Thanksgiving

Ayden and I were able to go with my parents, Jeff, and Katie up to Blackfoot, Idaho for the Thanksgiving weekend. Jonathan had work everyday and was unable to come with us, but luckily Josh, Becky, and Ben were also home to share a Thanksgiving dinner with him. Although...nothing quite compares to Grandma's cooking. :)

Ayden got to meet a bunch of my aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time over the weekend. His great grandparents were thrilled to be able to see him again since the first time they had seen him was when he was only weeks old. I'm sure he seemed huge to them - he's gained 4 pounds and three inches in the time between visits! Here he is with his Great Grandpa Scherbel.

Katie is always excited to go to Idaho so she can see her favorite cousins: Julia and Kaylee. Julia and Katie have been bff's since they were just little tykes so they spend every waking moment together when they can. Here is a fun moment I caught of a mini dog pile with the three of them.

I'm so glad that in Jonathan's absence I had some of my family members who were willing to step up to the plate and help me with Ayden. It can be kind of rough going it alone, especially with Ayden being completely thrown off of his schedule. Besides that it gave Ayden some good one on one time with people...even if it meant letting him watch Thanksgiving Day football with Grandpa George. :)

Us girls were trying to keep ourselves entertained, and Julia (being the silly girl that she is) put the couch pillows over her to make it look like she was only a sad little torso woman. It almost worked...can you tell we were a little bored?

Visiting The Craig George Family

I was so happy that my cousin and bff Leslie was at her parents' house for Thanksgiving so I would get a chance to visit with her and to see her adorable baby boy, Ryker. Now that she lives 10-12 hours away I don't get the chance to visit with her nearly as much as I would like to, so it was great that we got this opportunity. Here she is with my little Ayden.

We had so much fun with our babies. They both decided to take naps around the same time so we just HAD to snap some photos of it! Hers turned out better than mine though cause she had this amazing new camera...can you sense a little jealousy? :)

In this one Ayden almost looks as big as Ryker...but I think it was just because I took the picture from a bad angle. Aren't they cute though?

Ok, ok...so this one we kind of posed ourselves....but its still so friggin' cute that who really cares?

We were excited to get back - me and Ayden both missed Jonathan a ton while we were in Idaho (we've never been away from him overnight since Ayden was born) and I was glad to get Ayden back on his schedule, even though it changes weekly. Here's Ayden on our car ride home. Luckily he slept during most of the way there and back. What a good baby!

Hopefully next year we won't have to leave Jonathan behind because even though we did have a great weekend and we got to visit with lots of family and eat lots of good food...it just wasn't as good as it could have been without him there. Love you baby.